Tuesday, Jan 27, 2004
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Kerala
By K. Santhosh
THRISSUR, JAN. 26. A few years ago, rumour spread one evening that the litterateur, Vadakke Kottala Narayanankutty Nair, known to Malayalis as VKN, was dead. As reporters hastened to check whether the information was true, newsrooms received a call, "VKN speaking. This is to inform you that I am alive. Will let you know before I die." Life was all mirth for the master humorist of Thiruvilwamala. He poked fun at one and all. "VKN saw humour as a tool to unlock the riddles of life," says the critic, Asha Menon. "Humour became a poetic whine in his writings." VKN wrote, with equal felicity, about feudal Palakkad as well as the Delhi of the Sixties, where he was a journalist. "I remember him chiefly for his master creation, Payyan," says V. Rajakrishnan, critic. "A cross between a dandy, obsessed with food and sex, and a gimlet-eyed journalist, Payyan stood witness to the dramatic swing in values that characterised national politics in the post-Nehruvian era. Using Payyan as his mouthpiece, VKN brought to bear upon his fictional world a wealth of details pertaining to history, politics and military affairs." VKN gave a new dimension to satire. He was very much part of a subversive counter-culture that expressed itself humorously. "The dissidence was unmistakable," says C.V. Sreeraman, writer. "Many tried to imitate VKN's style, but all failed." VKN's works did not lend itself to translation. The reason: the manner in which he used words and expressions was totally new to Malayalam. "He listened to the innate music of words," explains Ms. Asha. "And created a language of his own, affording humour deeper roots." In some stories, the dialogue would be a mix of Malayalam, English and Hindi, or a combination of Valluvanadan and Malabar dialects. His blending of sounds had an ineffable beauty. "With this new vocabulary, he conveyed ideas drawn from ancient and modern sources," Dr. Rajakrishnan says. VKN infused life into cliches, giving them fresh meanings. Punning was second nature to him. For instance, to the common expression, `Chirichu chirichu mannu kappi', he added, `Ennittu kappiya mannu thuppi'. By clever usage and abusage of language, this genius brought a comic vision of the world to Malayalam literature. In this respect, he could be compared only to Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer. Anything that flowed from VKN's pen was precious. Even if the prose was Rabelaisian, there were takers. "He wrote about the sensual aspects of life nonchalantly," says Ms. Asha. "The writings reveal a temperate mind, and this few writers have." VKN was outspoken. And, sometimes it was difficult to separate the comic persona of misanthropy from the real man. "He was at the peak of his career in the 1960s and 1970s. One might discern a decline in his creative powers in the past two-and-a-half decades," Dr. Rajakrishnan observes. VKN joked he would never die on a Sunday. "There won't be space for a good obit the next day. Moreover, shouldn't those chaps (reporters) get a day to relax". On Sunday night, as news reached the bureaus that the humorist was no more, reporters hoped to hear a cracked voice, suppressing a chuckle, over phone -- as they did a few years ago.
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